Paramus—A brand-new paradigm is beginning at the Hillel of Northern New Jersey. With Rutgers University’s Hillel supervising the program, Englewood native Talia Mizikovsky has begun her tenure at the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey as Director of Jewish Student Life, serving the Jewish communities on campus at Bergen Community College, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Ramapo College and William Paterson University.
Mizikovsky, a graduate of Moriah, Frisch and Williams College, takes the job previously held by Rabbi Ely Allen, who made Aliyah with his family in August. In the new role, she plans to add onto the extremely well-regarded work of Rabbi Allen by adding shared programming between all campuses in addition to building up student leadership. She has been working with Rabbi Allen since April, shadowing him and working with him to learn the particulars of each campus.
One of the new projects that NNJ Hillel has begun is working with student leaders and providing education opportunities for them. The Hillel Engagement Internship, which identifies Lead Fellows to act as student leaders on their campuses, is a relatively new program which teaches students how to reach out and engage fellow students. “We are revitalizing by learning to engage students who are not already affiliated with Hillel,” Mizikovsky told the Jewish Link.
According to Hillel International, today there are more than 546 interns on 60 campuses. Since its inception in 2006, the engagement project has invested in 2,800 student interns who have cultivated 110,000 relationships.
Mizikovsky reported that she identified two or three student leaders on each of her four campuses, mainly upperclassmen, and arranged for them to attend a national Hillel conference in St. Louis earlier this summer, called The Engagement Institute. “The goal is to form networks of engagement based on one-on-one interactions,” she said. The Lead Fellows have a small stipend to run events, and a “coffee-date budget.”
By all accounts, the students had a wonderful experience at the conference in St. Louis, which took place on the Washington University campus. “It was sublime experiencing the diversity and cohesion of the Jewish people,” said David Storfer of Bergenfield, who is a student at Fairleigh Dickinson.
“The Engagement Institute was overall an awesome experience,” said Goldie Baum, from Passaic, NJ, who is a student at Bergen Community College. “I feel incredibly fortunate that I was able to be a part of such a warm and welcoming group of individuals who quickly became my friends within one day of meeting. I wasn’t sure at first what to expect but I can say at the end of the weekend I felt rejuvenated with high spirits and newfound energy to engage others on my college campus the same way I was approached at the conference. Baum said that all the groups and sessions were not only interesting and fun, but opened her eyes to a number of different new concepts.
“I learned how to connect with others on a deeper level, I learned about the civil rights movement and my place in that. The one thing that resonated with me most from The Engagement Institute was realizing the amount of power I have, that we all have. I came in feeling small and insignificant in the larger picture. I left feeling like I really can make a difference to other people, especially to my Jewish peers on campus!”
Follow Hillel of Northern New Jersey on Twitter and Instagram @HillelNNJ.
By Elizabeth Kratz
